This is a mechanical/electrical question, only related to Roon as it passes through.
I run Roon ROCK on a nuc hard-wired to both my LAN and the major endpoint, an amplifier/speaker system. I also have a Denon AVR (AVR-X3500H) set up in a media room. That model Denon is “Roon tested” but not “Roon ready,” ie it has been tested by Roon and can run Roon through the Denon’s USB or HDMI inputs. It cannot, however, run Roon straight through the Ethernet connection.
Inexpensive ethernet-to-HDMI converters are widely available. Has anyone tried one to run Roon into a “Roon-Tested-but-not-Ready” AVR? Even if it works, is there any significant degradation of the signal?
Many users run mini PC’s (UP Gateway from memory) with Roon bridge that they plug into the AVR HDMI cable. Other use Pi’s with USB output if the AVR supports USB input
These are pretty cheap and support multi channel music if you are looking for that.
Edit: I see GregD replied as I was typing my response
Personally I use DietPi to feed my HDMI multi channel and that works great
It’s digital, so as long as the extender works, there can be no degradation, assuming the extender you get supports the HDMI and HDCP versions you want to send.
How long do you need to run it? You might be able to get away with an active HDMI cable, those come in length up to at least 75 feet (maybe more, but I didn’t check) and it will be two fewer external boxes to deal with.
This would be a good solutionm, too (I run one of my endpoints off of a Gole miniPC with a built-in touch screen, which makes for a nice Roon display). An active HDMI cable might be quite a bit cheaper though.
If they work these days then it is a great idea.
I personally didn’t have a positive experience of Passive or Active converters (extenders quite a few years ago), hence my inability to recommend them, only suggest an alternative.
The ethernet-to-HDMI converters I see on line appear to be marketed to folks who want long runs and use them in pairs - ethernet-to-HDMI, long run, then HDMI-to-ethernet. I already have ethernet running from my server closet to the AVR. There’s an ethernet input to the AVR for all the TV and surround sound signals and it works quite well on the LAN. I was just falsely hopeful that I could port Roon directly through the AVR/ethernet input.
Aren’t the Raspberry Pi/Ropiee arrangements doing DAC conversions? I’m not really up on that technology.
Another option would be to buy another AVR that is Roon Ready, but that is probably the most expensive alternative and is back on the more gear treadmill.
Just read up on Roon Bridge and the Raspberry Pi, etc.
I guess a further dumb question: since I am running ROCK on the nuc, why isn’t/couldn’t Roon Bridge run on the nuc as well rather than on a separate computer? If Roon Bridge is an audio converter program why isn’t available as a subroutine within ROCK?
You are getting this backward. The technology is HDMI over Ethernet, not the other way around. And it is for extending HDMI at both the source and sink using long runs of Cat 5e (or greater) twisted pair cable. It is not for magically converting Roon RAAT TCP/IP into HDMI.
It is available as part of Rock, DietPi and any other solution that delivers Roon.
I was asking if your AVR had USB earlier and if you wanted multi channel music as that helps drive the solution. If it has USB and you don’t want multi channel then a simple Pi is perfect as a cheap and reliable delivery mechanism.
If the HDMI extender works then great, if not you have choices depending on your needs
It does not. People can stop asking this question or proposing this solution. There is hardly an AVR in the world in the last 15 years that supports USB for anything but mass storage. The number that do is closer to zero than it is to 10.
Uh, that’s not how it works. There’s a HDMI to twisted pair cable transmitter you plug into your NUC, and a twisted pair to HDMI receiver you plug into your AVR. In between you could have 75 feet or so of Cat5 or better cable.
There is no Roon Ready support there, so no, this won’t work. If the AVR supports Chromecast or Airplay, you could use that though…
They could if you add a DAC (hats I think they call them in Pi world) to it, but they do not have to.
Bridge functionality is part of Roon (both server and client) already. But it does, by definition, require that your audio device be directly connected to the computer.
If the extender works, it should be completely transparent to the ROCK (or anything else), it should not see anything different connected to the HDMI port than if it were connected with a straight cable, assuming that the extender support all the necessary versions of HDMI and HDCP.
I just have one point to add relating to the use of a small computer running Roon Bridge to deliver HDMI to a Roon Tested AVR.
I believe that HDMI on RaspberryPi devices is limited to stereo audio - I don’t know whether the limitation is hardware or driver related - I suspect the former.
By contrast DietPi and Roon Bridge running on a NUC will be able to convey multi-channel audio when requried. (ROCK running on the same NUC but just being used as a Roon Bridge would also be capable of delivering multi-channel audio).
For the purpose of running as a bridge device, there any NUC (and many other cheap x86 small form factor PC’s) will work fine. It most certainly does not have to be the latest and greatest i7 Thus a cheap, low spec SFF PC running Dietpi (or other linux variant of your choice) or even ROCK (if you can get it running) will be fine for this purpose.
It could work, but for that price I’d rather go (well, I did ) with
I run the full Roon client on it, and with Windows, if necessary, you can install manufacturer drivers to feed any crazy DSD high resolution device that has USB input.
Fort OP’s purposes, there’s an HDMI output. And the built-in display looks pretty decent as long as you aren’t sitting too far.
Thus a cheap, low spec SFF PC running Dietpi (or other linux variant of your choice) or even ROCK (if you can get it running) will be fine for this purpose.
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